Educated Waiter: Memoir of an African Immigrant, The

Tafadzwa Zimunhu Taruvinga, a young Zimbabwean, enrolls to study economics at Rhodes University in South Africa. As a foreign student, the fees are exorbitant, exacerbated by the fact that currency has become increasingly problematic in the ailing economy back home. Determined to graduate with a Rhodes degree, Tafadzwa is prepared to do anything – from unpacking groceries to cleaning shit-splattered toilets and waitering for a pittance. Constantly cash-strapped, most nights he goes to sleep hungry. Sometimes he needs to be inventive when concocting a meal. I poured the boiled water into the bowl of crumby Kellogg’s Cornflakes and carefully added a few granules of Knorr powder soup over the crushed smithereens. I mixed it all together, gnashed my teeth and forced down each bite with ample struggle. I was hungry. For most it would be unfathomable, eating a meal that wasn’t one. But I wanted to graduate with a Rhodes University degree so badly that ‘Knorr cornflakes’ seemed like a reasonable supper to allay the aching pangs. ‘This is not so bad,’ I tried to convince myself as I forced down the putrid slush. In truth, it was horrible. I was all too aware that the inedible concoction was the price I must pay for my education. When the plate was clean, I washed down the meal with a glass of warm water. Then I rinsed my zebra bowl, the plastic spoon and the glass and wiped them dry. For dessert, I wept quietly. Tafadzwa’s drive to conquer a world steeped in impenetrable hardships and prejudice is inspirational. He is a multi-faceted man: a son, a brother, a husband, a father to be, an immigrant, a waiter, a Catholic, a rebel, a graduate, a man bent on self-destruction, a man seeking redemption. Above all Tafadzwa is a true survivor.